1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to aids for teaching reading skills, more particularly games that teach reading through phonics and decoding skills.
2. Background Art
It is known in the art to use games to teach reading skills. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,277,586 to Branch ("Branch") provides cards bearing single letters and short letter combinations, to help teach children with reading and speaking dysfunctions to improve their reading and speaking skills. The cards are to be used in therapy sessions, but are intended to provide a game format to stimulate the children's interest.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,661,074 to Walker ("Walker") discloses a teaching device primarily for dyslexics, utilizing cards. The cards are provided with phonograms, words, and cards provided with a letter, a word beginning with that letter, and a picture corresponding to that word. The cards are used in conjunction with a game board which incorporates spinning indicators which are used to randomly select cards. The players receive the associated point values by reading the word on the card correctly. The first person to amass a certain number of points wins the game.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,524,899 to Haqedorn ("Haqedorn") discloses an alphabet-learning card game using a deck of cards, each of which is provided with a single letter of the alphabet, in both upper and lower case, along with a picture of an object beginning with that letter. The cards are used to learn to identify alphabet letters and to construct words.
Although these games make use of alphabet and phonics cards, the game rules are typically very simple, as would appeal to young children. For example, Branch uses the alphabet cards in a manner similar to an extremely simplified form of Scrabble.RTM., while Haqedorn uses the cards in a game similar to the traditional children's game "Go Fish." Such simple games are not suitable for stimulating interest from more mature student readers, such as adults learning English as a second language, young adults who do not read well, and illiterate adults.
It is also known to provide word-based games for primarily recreational purposes such as the well-known parlor games Boggle.RTM. and Scrabble.RTM.. However, the rules and difficulty of play of these games makes them unsuitable for student readers, even when competing with other student readers. Similarly, U.S. Pat. No. 5,213,333 to Petrovich et al. ("Petrovich") discloses a word-association board game. Players create lists of phrases, each phrase containing one word in common with the preceding phrase. Points are scored according to the number of phrases the player can think of in a given time. Petrovich is a primarily recreational game, and is specifically directed to developing "free association" rather than reading or comprehension skills.
Therefore, there is a need in the art for a game to teach reading skills which uses a rule format which is attractive to, and non-stigmatizing for, mature student readers, such as a card game wagering format.
There is further a need in the art for a game which can be played enjoyably by beginning student readers but still provides for intensive development of reading and comprehension skills.
Furthermore, there is a need in the art for a game to teach reading skills which provides for reading comprehension skills in addition to simple identification of alphabet letters and the reading of single words.
Therefore, there is a need for a card game which combines a wagering methodology in conjunction with a teaching game designed to teach student readers, of all ages, reading and comprehension skills through the use of word and sentence cards by developing decoding skills.